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On Friday, San Francisco-based print quarterly Meatpaperannounced that its upcoming issue, its 20th overall, would also be its final issue.

Sasha Wizansky — the magazine’s co-founder, editor-in-chief and art director — says that the emotional decision came about relatively recently, even though they always knew Meatpaper wasn’t going to last forever.

“In terms of the ideas that we cover, we could go forever, but Meatpaper was always a labor of love,” Wizansky says. “There were a number of concerns that led to our decision, but it was not for lack of content.”

So, it’s somewhat fitting that the final issue, coming out at the end of the month, is about the future of meat. Much of the issue is structured as a conversation, with cameos from Bruce German and Michael Pollan to Hank Shaw and Kirk Lombard. There is original artwork throughout, and musings on whether insects can be a viable source of future protein.

Since Meatpaper began in 2006, it’s been home to a bevy of writers, thinkers, photographers, illustrators and editors, many with Bay Area connections. As the website puts it, the magazine was founded “in response to the recent groundswell of interest in the ethics, aesthetics, and cultural significance of meat.” In many ways, it was a precursor to the same sort of print-bound creativity later seen in the ground-breaking Lucky Peach and other independent food journals. Though there’s a chance that Meatpaper might be revived in a different form down the line, Wizansky hopes that Meatpaper has sparked intelligent discussion about an important topic in this day and age.

“I guess our biggest hope is that we inspired a conversation, thinking about meat in different ways,” she says. “I feel very fortunate to have been working on these issues at such an important time in our food system.

“Meatpaper has been a labor of love for a lot of people … I’ve been feeling so proud and grateful for the incredible people who worked on it.”